Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna was “proud” of his team’s performance in the thrilling 1-1 home draw with Middlesbrough which put them one point clear at the top of the Championship.
Town went into the game looking to take advantage after seeing automatic promotion rivals Leicester and Leeds lose to Plymouth and Blackburn respectively.
Boro took the lead after 20 minutes through a header from Emmanuel Latte Lath but Town struck back 10 minutes later when Massimo Luongo crashed home a corner by Leif Davis.
Ipswich goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky produced two wonderful saves, firstly from Isaiah Jones and then Matt Clarke, to keep the scores level.
McKenna said: “Frustration isn’t my feeling at the moment. Maybe it will be tomorrow but at the moment it’s pride around the performance.
“I thought it was a brilliant game, I thought the performance was excellent against a good side and I was really proud of how we went about our business really.
“I thought we played brilliant, we played confident, tactically it was a really good battle, we created plenty of chances to win the game and I thought it was a really good performance.
“Over the course of the last two games could we have had an couple of extra points, for sure we could we have lost today, Vaz (Hladky) produces a great save at the end.
“The players have given everything and what’s more pleasing for me is the performance and at the end of the season we will get as many points that we get, I don’t think they are going to leave an ounce of effort out there.
“I really liked the way we went about our business and at the end of the day we pick up a point from a really good performance and we have a little bit of recovery now and look forward to last week and three great games.”
Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick was happy with a share of the spoils in the end.
He said: “It’s a tough place to come and you can see they’re a really good team, confidence is high and they’re in a really good place.
“Their record here is really good so it was always going to be challenging to come here, which makes it probably a decent point in isolation.
“But, for us, we came here to win and we wanted to win, so it’s a bit of mixed feelings really overall.
“We know what we needed [as far as play-off hopes were concerned]. It doesn’t change what we do for the next game, though.
“We want to finish the season strongly and continue to do the right things. We’re on a decent run at the moment and we want to try and keep building on that. The aim is to just try and keep winning football matches really.
“There are a lot of good things again. There are things we need to improve upon and be better at but there are some good things that we can take from it.
“We’ve been doing that for a number of games now which is pleasing. But we still want to be coming to places like this and winning. We tried to but we just didn’t quite pull it off.”
Vardy eyes 100-point season after Leicester's title win
Jamie Vardy has challenged his Leicester City team-mates to reach 100 points after sealing the Championship title with one game to spare.
The Foxes were promoted back to the Premier League without kicking a ball after Leeds United’s 4-0 defeat to QPR on Friday, but they needed to win on Monday to earn top spot.
Enzo Maresca’s side cruised to a 3-0 victory over Preston through Vardy’s brace and Kasey McAteer’s header, moving them to 97 points.
With one last milestone in their reach, Vardy wants to make sure they end an already successful season on a high.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “We can celebrate it tonight, but now we have another target which is 100 points.
“We are over the moon. It has gone by quick but it's a graft. Not many days off, I'll tell you that.
“The lads - they've given it all. Thoroughly deserved, and I'm glad we've had 5000 to come and celebrate with us. It's not like it's 20 minutes up the road."
After a run of just three victories from nine games in the league between mid-February and April, Leicester have now won each of their last three outings.
Maresca has praised his players for their hard work in what he labelled a “tough season”.
“Fantastic, it's been a fantastic season. The Championship is a tough season and very intense, but I'm very happy," said Maresca.
"Now it's time to enjoy the work of the season to bring this special club back to the Premier League. We deserve it.
“The last two days they have been fantastic. We got promoted, but it was difficult in game preparation. But we used all of today to prepare for the game, the morning and afternoon. It was good.”
Barcelona 4-2 Valencia: Lewandowski hat-trick leads Barca to 4-2 win over 10-man Valencia
Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski scored a second-half hat-trick to help his side fight back to claim a hard-fought 4-2 win over Valencia, who were leading 2-1 when they were reduced to 10 men just before the break.
Fermin Lopez's header from a Raphinha cross put Barca in front after 22 minutes, but Valencia's Hugo Duro struck in the 27th and Pepelu scored from the spot after a foul by Ronald Araujo 11 minutes later to give the visitors the lead.
But after Valencia keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili saw red for a handball outside the box before the break, Xavi's side dominated and Lewandowski scored with two headers from corners in the 49th and 82nd minutes before getting his treble with a free-kick in added time.
The win postponed Real Madrid's almost inevitable LaLiga title celebrations for a couple of weeks as Carlo Ancelotti's side sit atop the standings on 84 points.
Barcelona moved back to second in LaLiga on Monday with 73 points as they leapfrogged surprise package Girona, who are third with 71. Those two teams will meet in a Catalonia derby on Saturday.
Data debrief
Barcelona conceded two goals in the first half of a home game for the second time this season, after also doing so against Girona in LaLiga in December 2023.
However, Lewandowski's goals have been invaluable to La Blaugrana this season as he's earned 17 points with his 16 goals in the league.
Preston 0-3 Leicester City: Foxes seal Championship title in style
Leicester City cruised to a 3-0 win over Preston in the Championship on Monday to clinch the title with a game to spare.
Jamie Vardy was the star for the Foxes as he scored in both halves before Kasey McAteer made sure of the points with an unmarked header.
Abdul Fatawu had the chance to cap an already memorable night for the travelling fans but hit the post with his curler.
Preston slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat, while Leicester go into their final game against Blackburn Rovers with the knowledge that they will lift the trophy after the final whistle.
Data Debrief
Jamie Vardy has scored 18 goals this season (two in this game), more than any other Leicester player in the competition. He has also netted in his last three games, scoring four goals in total.
It was a dominant performance from the Foxes, who had 19 shots with 11 of those on target. At the other end, Preston only managed to test Jakub Stolarczyk once from their five attempts.
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